To Box Or Not To Box, That Is The Question......

[ToraToraTora]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-43574298
Good to see the MSPs are not wasting their time on trivia!

[wolf63]

I suppose that they could drag the island down a bit with a tugboat so that it fits on the map.

It is obviously an issue that is important to some people.

[Jackdaw33]

Ever seen a map of the US? Hawaii is in a box.

[maggiebee]

That's rich coming from you TTT, you seem to spend hours every day spewing out total trivia. Have you nothing better to do with your time?

[ToraToraTora]

It is a well known cartography technique, when you see something in a box you know that at the scale it would not be on the map. No Idea why the Scottish "parliament" thinks it needs messing about with. The Scilly Isles are often boxed, as is Hawaii, no confusion abounds there.

[vulcan42]

I have an Ordnance Survey map of Scotland, it has the Shetland Isles in a box. If the map was redrawn to scale and the Islands in the right place, this map would have to be 6 feet long and 4 feet wide. Hardly pocket sized. :o)

[ludwig]

They should just remove the box and draw the islands closer to the mainland. Then when they whinge about the islands not being in the right place they can just say 'The islands are in the right place - we've drawn the mainland in the wrong place to be closer to them'.

[aelmpvw]

i thought it was going to be a thread about 'the noble art'

[Old_Geezer]

Stick them on a seperate page with all the other ex small boxes. That'd solve it.

[Hopkirk]

I thought it was a thread about Formula 1 pit stop tactics

[fiction-factory]

One way round it is to put the box around the mainland instead

[Old_Geezer]

Oh Hoppy, that must be Jeremy Clarkson you're thinking of.

[New Judge]

One of the proponents of the scheme, SNP back bencher John Mason, is also known for his insistence that the Isle of Skye is not an island (due to the fact that it now has a fixed link in the form of a bridge to the mainland). Following that logic mainland Britain is not an island by virtue of the Channel Tunnel.

It’s always amazed me how so many people with so many ridiculous ideas seem to gather in one place. But that seems to be stock-in-trade for groups of politicians. Just where do they find all these people and why don’t they turn their talents towards solving real problems that effect real people?

[steg]

Aye but the trivia is an amendment to a larger bill : Islands(Scotland)Bill

[New Judge]

That's as may be, steg. But the matter is clearly not wort MSP's time debating. The reason why the islands are shown boxed as they are on maps is well known and has been explained here. There is no practical alternative to it if the maps involved are to remain compact enough so as to be usable. The idea that they should be expanded in size or have their scale reduced so as to show 100 miles or more of open sea is crass. It is simply unbelievable that politicians are wasting their time (for which they are paid handsomely by the taxpayer) on such inane drivel.

[Togo]

Gotta love politicians, particularly the Scottish variety. Full of solutions for problems that don't exist before they make them.
This "map" may be useful. :))

https://thumbsnap.com/i/vouLeoff.jpg